Copper thefts are hurting Southeast Valley taxpayers

by Jim Walsh - Sept. 27, 2011 09:08 AMThe Arizona Republic

A couple claimed they were looking for a lost pit bull along Loop 202 in southeast Gilbert last month.

But the wire cutters spotted inside their car, the spool of wire in their trunk and footprints leading down to the freeway were more than enough evidence, police said, to get Anna and Mark Holroyd, both of Gilbert, arrested on suspicion of charges including theft and aggravated criminal damage.

The arrest, police said, was a welcome but rare victory for Southeast Valley police agencies in a seemingly endless cat-and-mouse game involving copper thefts.

Police say copper thefts punish taxpayers, children who want to play night games in soccer or baseball leagues, and motorists trying to drive at night.

"These copper thieves are affecting all of us," said Gilbert police Sgt. Mark Marino, who supervises property crime detectives. "We need more community involvement. We need more citizens to contact us."

The recent Gilbert arrest resulted from a call to police from a neighbor who thought the couple were acting suspiciously.

Southeast Valley police agencies said copper thefts have become a chronic problem, the most prevalent heist for methamphetamine addicts and other drug users.

"We've been trying a lot of things to prevent the thefts," including the installation of 40 steel reinforced lids on ground level utility boxes, said Richard Woodward, Mesa's street light system supervisor.

But all Mesa has learned is that there's no sure-fire way to stop the thieves.

"It's just crazy. It's been going on several years. We just don't seem to be getting anywhere with it," Woodward said.

Mesa Detective Jose Pena said anything made out of certain types of metals, including copper, is a target for thieves who sell to unscrupulous scrap yards. A law passed two years ago to curb the thefts is full of loopholes, police said.

All Southeast Valley freeways have been repeat targets for wire theft. Loop 202, including the Red Mountain Freeway through Mesa and the Santan Freeway through Chandler and Gilbert, required 132 repairs at a cost of $207,569 on 45 miles of freeway during the 2011 fiscal year. That includes the cost of replacement wire and labor.

Thieves have ripped off $312,000 in copper wire from Mesa's Transportation Department in fiscal year 2010-11.

Mesa's Parks and Recreation Department has lost $54,000 in wire in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The money spent on new wiring at parks could have kept the city's nine pools open a week and half longer this summer, said MarcHeirshberg, Mesa's parks director.

Mesa police analysts estimate $1.9 million in metals have been stolen from property owners of all sorts in the city this year alone. That includes air-conditioners from private homes and businesses.

Gilbert has recorded 96 incidents of copper thefts this year with losses soaring into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gilbert and Chandler lost more than a mile of copper wire on the Paseo and Heritage Trail, which runs along the Consolidated Canal through both cities. It was the largest theft of copper wire from a public facility in Gilbert history.

The theft cost Gilbert taxpayers $68,000 in cheaper aluminum wire that was used as a replacement. Otherwise, the bill would have been more than $93,000 if copper wire was used to replace the stolen wire. The aluminum wire also has at least one other advantage - its scrap value is much lower than copper.

Chandler police said that a suspect arrested in the trail copper thefts, Kirk Wise, 45, was supporting a $50-$100 a day methamphetamine addiction and could have been responsible for the theft of $95,000 worth of stolen wire since January 2010.

"It's an endless thing. It seems like you never put a dent into it," said Mesa Detective Mike Morgan.

Chandler police Detective Dan Mellentine said he tracked down wire stolen from Chandler's Paseo Trail to a scrap yard and linked it to Wise through records. He then learned Gilbert police also were looking for Wise for thefts along Gilbert's part of the trail.

During surveillance, "we watched him do a number of thefts. It happened to be in Gilbert," Mellentine said. "The Paseo and Heritage Trails are easy marks. It's pretty quiet there."

Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert police all have made copper theft arrests in recent months. Earlier this month, Mesa police arrested two men on suspicion of attempting to steal an air-conditioner after a north Mesa property manager blocked the men from escaping.

But Morgan and other detectives admit that thieves often avoid arrest because the wire is difficult to trace. Thieves often need to be caught in the act,.

"Compared to the dollar amount, it's not as much as we'd like," Morgan said about the relatively few arrests.

Southeast Valley officials are comparing strategies, trying to see which preventative measures are most effective in deterring thieves, but they admit the thieves often find a way to defeat their efforts.

Craig Blum, Mesa's field operations superintendent in the city Transportation Department, said crews installed reinforced steel covers to protect utility boxes and keep thieves out. When that didn't solve the problem, crews invented a nut that can only be unscrewed with a special wrench.

Even the nut proved fruitless when thieves pried the utility boxes out of the ground and stole the wiring anyway.

Mesa now uses video surveillance to curb wire thefts at a variety of locations, Blum said.

Gilbert left a bank of lights on overnight in six parks to deter theft, but some neighbors didn't like the glare, and high electricity bills cut into the savings from reduced thefts.

"For six months, we left one bank of lights on at sports fields and we had no thefts for six months," said Jim Norman, director of Gilbert's community services department. "The week after we turned the lights off, we had a theft."

He said thieves are making the wire easier to steal by doing prep work during the day, cutting wire near electrical poles and utility boxes to make it easier to remove at night. He urged residents to report suspicious activity to police.

"This is a serious economic theft to our people and to people in our community. It's coming out of their pocket," Norman said.

Now, Gilbert officials are experimenting with less intrusive ground level lighting. They say park design will probably change in the future to deter wire thieves.

In the meantime, youth baseball, softball and soccer games have been canceled because thieves have stolen the wiring, making the lights inoperable. Never willing to accept defeat, Mesa is taking another new approach to protect the wire and taxpayers' pockets: Workers are burying the utility boxes underground to make the wire harder to find.

A crew from JFK Electrical Enterprise works on replacing stolen copper wire along the Heritage Trail in Gilbert with aluminum wire that has less value as scrap to deter thieves.

More on this topic

Copper thefts costly to taxpayers

Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler have been victimized repeatedly by copper wire thieves with taxpayers ultimately stuck with the bill:

Mesa

 Transportation Department lost $312,000 during fiscal year 2010-11 to replace about 214,800 feet of stolen wire.

 Parks and Recreation lost $54,000 in fiscal 2010-11 from wire stolen at parks including Quail Run, Red Mountain, Powell and Skyline.

Gilbert

 The town spent $63,286 since 2007 to replace copper wire stolen at Crossroads, Nichols, Zanjero and Discovery parks, and from a maintenance yard.

 A theft of 1½ miles of copper wire along the Heritage Trail cost the town $68,000, using cheaper aluminum wire.

Chandler

 The city's parks have been hit for $49,693 in thefts since January 2010, with four thefts in 2010 and six in 2011. West Chandler, Paseo Trail, Harmony Hollow, Espee and Tibshraeny parks, and Bogle Junior High School's sports fields have been targets. Paseo Trail has been hit three times, while Paseo Vista Recreation Area has been hit twice.